_P.S._--I suppose Mrs. Todd ought to see the paper about her man; judge of that, and if you think she would not dislike it, buy her one from me, and let me know. The article is called _Pastoral_, in Longman's Magazine for April. I will send you the money; I would to-day, but it's the Sabbie day, and I cannae. R. L. S. Remembrances from all here. TO MRS. FLEEMING JENKIN The following sets forth the _pros_ and _cons_ which were balancing each other in his mind in regard to his scheme of going to make a stand in his own person against agrarian outrage in Ireland. _[Skerryvore, Bournemouth] April 15 or 16 (the hour not being known), 1887._ MY DEAR MRS. JENKIN,--It is I know not what hour of the night; but I cannot sleep, have lit the gas, and here goes. First, all your packet arrived: I have dipped into the Schumann already with great pleasure. Surely, in what concerns us there is a sweet little chirrup; the _Good Words_ arrived in the morning just when I needed it, and the famous notes that I had lost were recovered also in the nick of time. And now I am going to bother you with my affairs: premising, first, that this is _private_; second, that whatever I do the _Life_ shall be done first, and I am getting on with it well; and third, that I do not quite know why I consult you, but something tells me you will hear with fairness. Here is my problem. The Curtin women are still miserable prisoners; no one dare buy their farm of them, all the manhood of England and the world stands aghast before a threat of murder. (1) Now, my work can be done anywhere; hence I can take up without loss a back-going Irish farm, and live on, though not (as I had originally written) in it: First Reason. (2) If I should be killed, there are a good many who would feel it: writers are so much in the public eye, that a writer being murdered would attract attention, throw a bull's-eye light upon this cowardly business: Second Reason. (3) I am not unknown in the States, from which the funds come that pay for these brutalities: to some faint extent, my death (if I should be killed) would tell there: Third Reason. (4) _Nobody else is taking up this obvious and crying duty:_ Fourth Reason. (5) I have a crazy health and may die at any moment, my life is of no purchase in an insurance office, it is the less account to husband it, and the business of husbanding a life is dreary and demoralising: Fifth Reason. I state these in no order, but as they occur to me. And I shall do the like with the objections.